Notice: From the
sixties on the average retail-prices per gram of
hashish and marijuana were broadcasted by
National Dutch VARA Radio by Koos Zwart, son of
the late Minister of Health Irene Vorrink. The
list below was compiled on
and is broadcasted on mondays by MokumTV in Amsterdam. All prices are in
Euro (1 Euro = 2.20371 Dutch Guilders).

The Dutch law
discriminates between soft- and hard drugs. Free
aviable for everybody over 18 years of age in
Holland are the products of the
cannabis-sativa-plant, known as hashish and
marijuana. If you´re over 18 you can buy a daily
maximum of 5 gram hash or weed in municipality-controlled
´Coffeeshops´. WARNING:
It is very dangerous to take any amount of
cannabis with you when leaving Holland.

Europe´s
oldest magazine for hash & marijuana
is HIGHEST MAGAZINE. It started in the
eighties (the cover left is from 1987),
lightyears before later magazines as
Essensie, Soft Secrets or Highlife. It
was the first magazine since the 2nd
world war that was indexed by the Dutch
government and banned to be distributed
in Dutch prisons, because it published
the for some suckers ´highly
controversial´ retail-prices of hash and
marijuana and adresses of so called
´coffeeshops´. Publishing the average
keeps the prices down. Cannabis
cultivation and legalization of
recreational and medical uses of cannabis
is our aim.

Ron
Vandenberg

Highest Magazine started as a bi-monthly printed
magazine, published by Bob Warren of the Warren
Brothers World Press. Artwork and comics by
Erroll Cecile, Arthur Martens and Stan Heinze.
Writing contributors were e.g. Simon Vinkenoog
(Timothy Leary called himself in an interview
´The American Simon Vinkenoog´), Ed Rosenthal
(founder of High Times), Wernard, Ben Dronkers,
Boudewijn Büch, Peter den Haring, Maurice de
Vries and Samuel Nederpelt. Editor-in-Chief since
1986 is Ron Vandenberg.

from the Seattle Times, Thursday, August
19, 1999

Microsoft
millionaire boosts marijuana-initiative drive

by
Dionne Searcey
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

OLYMPIA
- A group that wants marijuana to be as legal and readily
available as whiskey says it has secured financial
support from a retired Microsoft millionaire to help put
an initiative before legislators and perhaps voters next
year.

The
Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp says
it already has received $110,000 from the Seattle
software programmer, whose identity it declined to reveal
at a news conference yesterday.

The
group said it plans to release the benefactor's name next
month, in compliance with state
campaign-finance-disclosure requirements. A spokesman
said the millionaire has pledged $200,000 more to ensure
the campaign can pay a professional firm to collect the
180,000 signatures needed by the end of the year to
submit Initiative 229 to the Legislature.

If
lawmakers approve the initiative, it would become law.
But the Oregon-based sponsors expect the Legislature to
ignore the measure, which would mean it would be referred
to voters in November 2000.

The
initiative, dubbed the Cannabis Tax Act, calls for
marijuana to be sold only in state liquor stores, and for
state licensing of farmers who grow it. It's considered
one of the most ambitious marijuana-legalization efforts
in the country.

"We're
urging everyone to come out of the closet and support
this effort," said Paul Stanford, the group's
executive director, who said he smokes marijuana
"occasionally."

Stanford
said he is setting up an office in Seattle's University
District.

The
initiative's substantial financing might give it the
momentum that has been missing from past legalization
initiatives in Washington that failed to qualify for the
ballot, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director for the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"Even
with almost no money, grass-roots organizers working on
marijuana reform have done pretty well," said St.
Pierre, who is based in Washington, D.C. "But they
don't have good record-keeping and sometimes will not
have crossed every T and dotted every I.

"Thankfully,
this kind of money makes it possible to have
professionals on hand."

David
Brine, spokesman for Secretary of State Ralph Munro, the
state's chief elections officer, said the dollars would
likely help the cause.

"We've
always said the key ingredients for a successful ballot
initiative campaign are, first, an idea or issue that has
people angered or interested. The second is a network of
people, and the third thing is money," Brine said.

"The
more you have of the third thing, the less you need of
the first two."

The
Campaign for Restoration and Regulation of Hemp is
sponsoring a similar initiative in Oregon, Stanford said.
With $15,000 in contributions, the campaign said it
already had collected more than 13,000 signatures as of
last Friday.

Stanford
is a 1982 graduate of The Evergreen State College, a
former letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and a
former importer of hemp fabric.

The
Washington initiative may attract support in Seattle and
other urban areas, Stanford said, but likely will
struggle in Eastern Washington.

"It's
going to be tougher there, but when you look at it, all
the facts are on our side," Stanford said, citing
medical research that shows marijuana can be beneficial
in treating some conditions, and statistics that show
most pot smokers are employed. "We think the only
way to lose this is if voters aren't educated."

It also
will be difficult to secure support from politicians
here.

"Gov.
(Gary) Locke has supported the medical use of marijuana,
but he does not believe the recreational use of the drug
is appropriate," said Locke's spokesman, David Chai.

Lt. Gov.
Brad Owen, a crusader against drugs, is sure to denounce
the initiative, said his aide, Nathe Lawver.

Sponsors
say they are confident the measure, if passed, is crafted
in a way that will stand up to any court challenge.

They say
their proposal could raise millions for state coffers.
Under the initiative, 90 percent of marijuana-sale
revenues would go to the state general fund, 8 percent to
drug-treatment programs; 1 percent to a drug-education
program for school children; and 1 percent to finance a
committee to promote industrial hemp fiber.

The
initiative also might clear up some of the uncertainties
surrounding a medical marijuana initiative that passed
last year, Stanford said.

That law
allows qualified patients, with documentation from their
doctors, to possess a 60-day supply of marijuana. But the
law is silent on how patients who can't grow their own
might get marijuana, because selling and distributing the
drug is illegal.

The
initiative also would:

-- Limit
the sale of marijuana to adults over 21 and allow the
state to tax it.

Supporters
say it also will protect children. "We will take the
lucrative marijuana market out of the black market, where
children and substance abusers often control it
today," the campaign's literature says.

A 1998
statewide survey about risky behavior in grades six,
eight, 10 and 12 indicated marijuana use has risen
significantly among all but sixth-graders.